Development work was continued on the fused fluoride process for the recovery of enriched uranium from zirconium-matrix fuel alloys. The alloy is dissolved by immersing it in molten sodium fluoride-zirconium fluoride at 600°C and passing hydrogen fluoride vapor through the system.The dissolved uranium tetrafluoride in the melt is then volatilized as uranium hexafluoride by sparging with fluorine. The uranium hexafluoride product is purified and decontaminated by fractional distillation. Additional corrosion tests were made on a variety of metals in an effort to find a material of construction suitable for the fluorination step. All the metals tested, with the exception of Hastelloy B, were attacked rapidly in the fluorinated melt. The attack was particularly severe at the melt-gas interface when tests were made with partially submerged specimens of the metals.

A total of nine clad plates, containing uranium -5 w/o zirconium 1.5 w/o niobium alloy cores and clad with Zircaloy-II, were rolled in plain carbon steel jackets, heat treated, physically evaluated, and corrosion tested. All these plates were found to be within predetermined dimensional tolerance in width, thickness, length, cladding thickness, and core distribution. Improved control of wielding variables and of the length of the seal pin projecting above the end plugs resulted in the elimination of frequently observed segmented inclusions at the seal pin interfaces.

The EBWR loading requires a total of 888 plates. It is anticipated that approximately 1000 plates will have to be produced to obtain the number of acceptable plates required for the loading. To the end of this quarter, 568 cladding billet cores acceptable with respect to chemical composition and physical soundness had been cast; this number represents 78% of the total number of cores cast. Approximately 75% of the Zircaloy-II stock required has been rolled, and about 55% of the cladding components required have been finished. The anticipated number of 495 cladding billets required for the thin (0.210") natural and enriched plates have been assembled, welded, sealed, and jacketed in steel. A total of 310 cladding billets have been rolled to fuel plates; of this number, 142 have been completely finished, and the remaining 168 are in the finish processing stages. The stability of the equipment for measuring the clad thickness of EBWR fuel plates has been improved by placing the phototube and the anthracene scintillator crystals in an insulated box with a temperature regulation of the order of 0.1°F.

This report is a record of experimentation conducted intermittently over a period of two years and directed toward preventing deposition of transport corrosion products on fuel elements and other critical components in high-temperature, circulating water nuclear reactor. It includes the postulated mechanism for deposition, a description of experimental equipment, experimental data, results obtained from the experiments, and recommendations for future study.

Uranium alloys containing 3 and 6 w/o niobium have been prepared in which the impurity content is rather low. These alloys show very promising resistance to corrosion by water at 260 and 300 degree C. The corrosion resistance is exhibited in degassed water and in water which is saturated with air or oxygen at room temperature before testing.

The general program established at Argonne National Laboratory in connection with the Fast Power Breeder Reactor (PBR) includes performance of exponential experiments on assemblies having compositions which may exist in the reactor core. This report deals with that phase of the program known as the Fast Exponential Experiment which may be described very briefly as follows. An assembly of fissile (U-235) and fertile material (too small to be self-critical) intermixed with poisons (such as are encountered in the mechanical structure and coolant system of a self-sustaining reactor) is fed with neutrons from an auxiliary source. By measurements of the neutron flux within the assembly, important parameters can be calculated which are necessary to the proport design of an actual critical reactor of the same composition.

Report issued by the Argonne National Laboratory covering the quarterly report from the Reactor Engineering Division. A summary of reactor programs, designs, development, and experiments are presented. This report includes tables, illustrations, and photographs.

A method is described for preparing plaster of Paris replicas of irradiated fuel slugs. An impression mold is made by pouring the plaster about a fuel slug held in a specially designed holder. The slug is removed from the holder and the impression mold issued to cast a replica, also made of plaster of Paris. The replicas, including one end only, are accurate reproduction of the original slug for surface features down to about one-half mil and for dimensions within one or two mills. Two dental impression plasters were found to give satisfactory results. With the limits mentioned, the process will serve the purpose of preserving models of radioactive specimens for use as "museum pieces." However, the procedures are very exacting in achieving such results.

This report describes the construction of a reactor and the research conducted in the reactor such as solid fuel and liquid fuel research, boiling reactor experiments, CP-6 bond testing program, and water quality control experiments for CP-6 program.

A program was established for DOE Environmental Restoration and Waste Management (EM) to evaluate factors that are anticipated to affect waste glass reaction during repository disposal, especially in an unsaturated environment typical of what may be expected for the proposed Yucca Mountain repository site.

This report describes the R&D work done at Argonne National Laboratory on solar energy technologies during the period October 1, 1978, to September 30, 1979. Technical areas included in the ANL solar program are solar energy collection, heating and cooling, thermal energy storage, ocean thermal energy conversion, photovoltaics, biomass conversion, satellite power systems, and solar liquid-metal MHD power systems.

This report describes the R&D work done at Argonne National Laboratory on solar energy technologies during the period October 1, 1978, to September 30, 1979. Technical areas included in the ANL solar program are solar energy collection, heating and cooling, thermal energy storage, ocean thermal energy conversion, photovoltaics, biomass conversion, satellite power systems, and solar liquid-metal MHD power systems.

This revised publication updates a previous report (ANL-7291) initially published in 1965, entitled Radiation Safety Technician Training Course which was intended to complement on-the-job monitoring training for Health Physics Technicians. Sections include basic information concerning atomic structure and other useful physical quantities, natural radioactivity, the properties of alpha, beta, gamma, x rays and neutrons, and the concepts and units of radiation dosimetry (including SI units).

A three-dimensional finite-element elastic analysis is carried out for a thick-wall tube (as sued in typical LMFBR steam generators) that contains a surface flaw in the form of a paraboloid of revolution. Effects of the depth and aspect ratio of the flaw on the stress distribution and stress concentration in the tube are explored.

Dissertation discussing the results of experiments to study the behavior of superconductors under light illumination.

This paper provides an economic analysis of three noise abatement strategies designed to interrupt the path of noise between highways and residential areas, and makes some abatement policy suggestions.

A data-collection and advisory team was formed to investigate observations of power reactivity decrement (PRD) and reactivity loss rate (RLR) obtained during EBR-II reactor run 74, because both the PRD and RLR were judged to be high during that run. This report describes the efforts to develop a realistic model explaining the reactivity observations for run 74 and presents recommendations for additional diagnostic information in the event of a recurrence of off-normal behavior of reactivity.

During disassembly and subsequent visual examinations of X159 (a Mark A-19A type of subassembly containing mixed-oxide fuel), 11 of 19 shroud tubes were found fully or partially severed. Several of the capsules within their shroud tubes were distinctly kinked at axial locations near those at which the shroud tubes were severed. The examination also disclosed that the shroud-tube fractures occurred during reactor operations.

An optimization method, based on linear programming, has been developed which determines the enrichment distribution in a multizone reactor such that the desired power distribution is achieved at BOL, as well as the poison distribution during reactor operation such that the reactor is kept critical and the desired power distribution is retained. For the numerical implementation of the method, the CYPRUS code has been written. Results of the application of the method are presented and input specifications for the use of the code are described.

Tutorial description of the Warren machine with a basic introduction to the motivation of the machine and the instructions that define it. Discussion of the fairly limited extensions required to extend the machine for more general use outside of implementations of logic programming. Substantial speedups will occur due to improvements in the implementation of the basic algorithms.

Much work has been done in the study of two-phase gas-liquid flows. Although it has been recognized superficially that such flows are not homogeneous in general, little attention has been paid to the inherent discreteness of the two-phase systems. Only relatively recently have fluctuating characteristics of two-phase flows been studied in detail. As a result, new experimental devices and techniques have been developed for use in measuring quantities previously ignored. This report reviews and summarizes most of these methods in an effort to emphasize the importance of the fluctuating nature of these flows and as a guide to further research in this field.

The behavior of FTR-type, mixed-oxide, pre-irradiated, ''intermediate-power-structure'' fuel during a simulation of an FTR loss-of-flow accident was studied in the Mark-IIA integral TREAT loop. Analysis of the data reported here leads to a postulated scenario (sequence and timing) of events in the test. This scenario is presented, together with the calculated timing of events obtained by use of the SAS code.

The problem of calculating comprehensive sets of cross sections for ionization of atoms and molecules is reviewed. Emphasis is put on targets that are already ionized and lower-energy collisions for which the incident electron must be treated on a par with target electrons. The physical circumstances are discussed in which perturbation methods should be adequate, and special investigations are recommended to identify the relevant ranges of parameters more precisely and dependably. A new R-matrix approach is outlined which should permit rather simple, approximate, but dependable calculations when the perturbation methods fail.

Quarterly report discussing fuel cell research and development work at Argonne National Laboratory (ANL). This report describes studies directed toward seeking alternative cathode materials to NiO for molten carbonate fuel cells.